McDaniel College art instructor is semifinalist for Artscape prize

WESTMINSTER — The Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts has announced that Steve Pearson, an associate professor of art and art history at McDaniel College, and a Westminster resident, has been named among 24 semifinalists for the seventh annual Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize.

The competition awards a $25,000 fellowship to assist in furthering the career of a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region.

Pearson is a painter who has taught various art courses since 2004. He is also director of McDaniel's Rice Gallery.

He has exhibited nationally and regionally and has received several grants, including an artist grant from the Maryland State Arts Council (2010), grants from the Vermont Studio Center and faculty development grants from McDaniel College. Some of his work can be seen at srpearson.com.

Several finalists will be selected for the final review for the prize. Their work is then exhibited in the Alvin and Fanny Blaustein Thalheimer Galleries of the Baltimore Museum of Art from June 16 through July 29.

An award announcement and reception takes place July 14, at the BMA.

In addition, an exhibition of the remaining semifinalists' work is shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, July 20 through August 5.